Modern day passenger vehicles, such as cars, mini-vans, and SUVs typically advise children to sit in backseats instead of the front-row passenger seat in order to avoid potential injuries to the children in a car accident. In recent years, however, several incidents have happened, which led to tragic consequences to children seating in the backseats of the vehicles who were inadvertently left and locked inside the vehicles due to parents' negligence.
Some passenger vehicles have been equipped with backseat seatbelt sensors, which detect and provide indications to the drivers of the vehicles whether any of the backseat seatbelts has been clicked/buckled or released, wherein such indication can be in the form of, for non-limiting examples, messages or light indicators on the dash panel. The backseat seatbelt sensors, however, are not reliable indicators of whether the corresponding backseats are occupied by passengers or not. For a non-limiting example, the backseat seatbelts may be un-buckled or released accidentally by the children during the trip and the front row drivers may not be reminded that there are kids in the backseats when the drivers leave and lock the vehicles in a parked state. In addition, there are no mechanisms currently available to prevent the drivers from locking the vehicles when the back row seats (including the second and/or third row seats) are still occupied. A better solution is desired, which would help to prevent children from being accidentally left behind in the backseats of the vehicles unattended.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.